May 11, 2009

PRESS FREEDOM: McClatchy reporter threatened by Karzai's brother

Tom Lasseter is a McClatchy correspondent in Afghanistan, and in this piece he describes the rough treatment he got from President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai during an interview about the drug trade and corruption. Lasseter went through a list of allegations against Karzai before the interview went downhill:

He began to glare at me and questioned whether I was really a reporter.

"It seems like someone sent you to write these things," he said, scowling.

Karzai glared some more.

"You should leave right now," he said.

I
stuck my hand out to shake his; if I learned anything from three years
of reporting in Iraq and then trips to Afghanistan during the past
couple of years, it's that when things turn bad, you should cling to
any remaining shred of hospitality.

Karzai grabbed my hand and
used it to give me a bit of a push into the next room. He followed me,
and his voice rose until it was a scream of curse words and threats.

I managed to record just one full sentence: "Get the (expletive) out before I kick your (expletive)."

Hagel mentioned that U.S. and Afghan officials had accused one of
Karzai's brothers, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of the provincial
council in Kandahar, of links to narcotics trafficking. But Hagel
couldn't cite specifics, and Karzai refused to budge.

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PRESS FREEDOM: McClatchy reporter threatened by Karzai's brother

Tom Lasseter is a McClatchy correspondent in Afghanistan, and in this piece he describes the rough treatment he got from President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai during an interview about the drug trade and corruption. Lasseter went through a list of allegations against Karzai before the interview went downhill:

He began to glare at me and questioned whether I was really a reporter.

"It seems like someone sent you to write these things," he said, scowling.

Karzai glared some more.

"You should leave right now," he said.

I
stuck my hand out to shake his; if I learned anything from three years
of reporting in Iraq and then trips to Afghanistan during the past
couple of years, it's that when things turn bad, you should cling to
any remaining shred of hospitality.

Karzai grabbed my hand and
used it to give me a bit of a push into the next room. He followed me,
and his voice rose until it was a scream of curse words and threats.

I managed to record just one full sentence: "Get the (expletive) out before I kick your (expletive)."

Hagel mentioned that U.S. and Afghan officials had accused one of
Karzai's brothers, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of the provincial
council in Kandahar, of links to narcotics trafficking. But Hagel
couldn't cite specifics, and Karzai refused to budge.